Building Radio and Building Movements: Report-back from Detroit
This June, tens of thousands of people representing manifold social movements gathered in Detroit for the 2nd United States Social Forum (USSF) and the 12th annual Allied Media Conference (AMC). Uniting under the banner, “Another World is Possible, Another US is necessary and Another Detroit is Happening” people from around the country came to the Social Forum to share stories of struggle and to strategize how to create a national agenda around food justice, indigenous sovereignty, labor organizing, immigration justice and scores of other issues. Prometheus participated in the Social Forum to highlight how different movements are already using radio as an organizing tool, to meet with groups who are interested in starting their own community stations, and to bring voices of the U.S. Social Forum to the world through an online streaming station. At the Allied Media Conference we hosted a series of “RadioActive” workshops and a three day streaming radio broadcast.
Prometheus at the U.S. Social Forum
In collaboration with Palabra Radio, Prometheus hosted a bilingual workshop entitled Making Waves: Radio as a Tool to Build & Organize Communities. Participants heard from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, Project South, Radio Diaspora and Thousand Kites about how they use radio to build community, denounce injustices, organize around campaigns, and facilitate communication through prison walls. Participants then broke into groups to strategize around using radio in their communities to build youth power, challenge the prison industrial complex, and support immigrant organizing.
Prometheus and KBCS produced a radio broadcast and captured important stories from community organizers throughout the country. The Ordinary People Society from Dothan, Alabama spoke with All of Us or None about the ways they're confronting all the barriers that exist for people once they get out of prison, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers spoke with Voces Mobiles about how radio is an integral part of their campaigns for farmworkers rights, and VozMob spoke of the role cell phones play in day labor organizing. Youth from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Jackson, Mississippi talked about their cross country caravan that brought them to the Detroit and The Esperanza Peace and Justice Center shared stories of their battle for free speech in San Antonio, Texas. Chants, songs, stories and even tears were shared in our little makeshift station, showing that radio not only can be a powerful tool to get your message out, but also to build community by the very act of broadcasting.
Prometheus at the Allied Media Conference
We also hosted a three day broadcast a week earlier at the Allied Media Conference, a gathering that focuses on transforming communities through media-based organizing. Listen to an hour special from the broadcast. The broadcast was part of a larger series of workshops entitled, Radioactive: From the Streets to the Airwaves. Through 6 workshops organized by Prometheus Radio Project and Peoples Production House, along with Radio Vocalo, Radio Rootz, KBCS, Making Contact, Flujos Vivos and others, hundreds of people learned how to build mini radio transmitters, make one minute cut and copy radio pieces, set up a basic radio studio, do online streaming. We also hosted a discussion exploring radio as an organizing tool with panelists from First Voices KPFA, CHRY, Virgin Islands Prison Project, and Community News Production Institute. Listen to the panel here (and forgive us... we missed the intro in the recording)
Detroit is a place of inspiration and rising community power. Now is the moment to take all that we learned and all the connections that we made to keep building a larger movement. We hope to continue working with the many groups that we met and to help them use radio to make that other world possible.
